UK Needs a New Coach - Fire Billy Gillispie

Seriously, this guy is not the man for UK. Send him back to Texas. I am sick of people still blaming Tubby.

http://www.courier-journal.com/article/20090204/SPORTS03/902040499/1002/SPORTS

LEXINGTON, Ky. -- That perfect league start seems like a faded memory.

The University of Kentucky men's basketball team suffered another head-scratcher last night -- a 66-57 setback to Mississippi State, which had not won in Lexington since 1995.

The announced Rupp Arena crowd of 21,940 booed the Wildcats, who trailed 37-24 at halftime and saw their second-half comeback fall short.

Now the team is searching for answers.

UK (16-7) started its Southeastern Conference schedule 5-0 but has followed with three straight losses -- at Mississippi, at home against South Carolina and now this.

It was painful game all around for the Cats. Forward Ramon Harris left in the second half with a left shoulder injury, although coach Billy Gillispie said he could have returned. Star guard Jodie Meeks broke a tooth before exiting late in the game. Michael Porter is wondering about the team's heart.

"Right now it seems like we don't care out there," the junior point guard said. "Like we're not playing with any heart and desire. We're not competing. If we can change that maybe things will turn around. We just have to care a little bit more and have a little more fight in us."

Gillispie said on Monday that the Cats needed to take competing more personally, but last night Mississippi State (15-7, 5-2) displayed a lot more bite.

It never trailed while torching UK with 14-of-27 three-point shooting.

"We have to play a lot tougher," said UK forward Patrick Patterson, whose team missed its first 10 shots. "We also have to play with a lot more heart. We have to play a lot more competitive. We have to want it more than the opposition does. We have to play together, play as a whole, play as one, play as a family."

UK used a 10-0 second-half run to get back into the game but never got closer than three points. With Mississippi State leading 45-42, the Bulldogs' Jarvis Varnado -- who finished with six points, 12 rebounds and seven blocks -- scored on a dunk and Barry Stewart followed with a three-pointer.

The momentum seemed to permanently shift in Mississippi State's favor when UK's Perry Stevenson was called for an offensive foul after grabbing a rebound. The Bulldogs got the ball back and Dee Bost scored to move the margin to 52-45.

Mississippi State then made three straight three-pointers, including one by Phil Turner while he was falling down, to push the lead to 61-45.

Ravern Johnson had five three-pointers and finished with 17 points. Turner made four threes and had 18 points. Stewart had three threes, and Bost hit two.

"When teams spread you out and make shots like they were, they usually get you on penetration and pitch," Gillispie said. "But they didn't. They got most of their threes on back screens, out-of-bounds plays and those kind of things. Those are things we should have done a better job of defending because we knew all of their plays. We weren't quite tough enough when they screened us."

For a long time, the loudest ovation wasn't for the UK basketball team but for Philadelphia Phillies pitcher and former UK star Joe Blanton. The Cats' second-half rally got the fans excited for a bit. Trailing 43-30, they reeled off 10 straight points, capped by Meeks' breakaway dunk with 11 minutes to play. Varnado broke the run with two free throws with 10:40 to go.

Meeks and Patterson finished with 15 points each. No other UK player scored in double figures, and the Cats shot just 21 of 59 (35.6 percent).

UK will have plenty of time to think about its losing streak. The Cats' next game will be next Tuesday, when they host Florida.

"We have to get back to practice," Stevenson said. "We have to practice like we know and get back to playing like we were at the start of the conference."

Michael Grant can be reached at (502) 582-4069.

Tiger Woods ready for comebback

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/04/sports/golf/04golf.html?ref=sports

SAN DIEGO — Tiger Woods wanted to know how Torrey Pines Golf Course looked, what the weather was doing and what else was going on at the site where, six months ago, he put on a paranormal display in the United States Open — the likes of which had not been seen before and most likely will not be seen again.

“How’s the course out there?” Woods asked during a telephone interview Tuesday from Orlando, Fla. “It’s going to rain, huh? It’ll be cold, damp and long.”

The PGA Tour is back at Torrey Pines this week with the Buick Invitational. Woods is still absent from the game, and the forecast of rain and cold during Thursday’s first round could be considered appropriate. Cold, damp and long or warm, hard and fast, Woods has won under all conditions at Torrey.

Woods, the No. 1-ranked player in the world, has been out since he had surgery after his United States Open playoff victory over Rocco Mediate in June, in which he played 91 holes with a torn anterior cruciate left knee ligament and two stress fractures in his left tibia. The tour has suffered in his absence, with depressed television ratings and lower turnout at tournaments.

At home in Orlando, where he is still rehabilitating his knee, Woods has been diligently preparing for the time that his body and his doctors tell him he can return to competitive golf.

“It’s just a matter of getting up the reps and getting the ball count a little higher and recovering on a daily basis,” Woods said. “That’s the trick when you’re coming back from major surgery is not to push it so much that you can’t recover the next day.

“I don’t know when I’ll be back. A lot depends on the baby. Our family situation is more important than anything I’m doing golfwise. That will take precedence over anything golfwise.”

Woods’s family situation is that his wife, Elin, will soon deliver the couple’s second child. Since they announced Elin’s pregnancy early last September, the only due date given has been late winter. Woods hinted on Tuesday that, despite a prediction of six more weeks of winter by the groundhog Punxsutawney Phil on Monday, late winter may be coming a bit earlier than that.

“The time flies,” Woods said. “You know, it’s six months away, then a few months away and next thing you know it’s almost here.”

Woods has been busy in the past few months. He was a featured speaker at President Obama’s pre-inaugural celebration at the Lincoln Memorial on Jan. 18, giving an emotional speech about the sacrifices made by members of the United States military that was inspired, in part, by the service of his father, Earl, a former Green Beret.

And while juggling his rehabilitation, managing site visits to golf course building projects under way in North Carolina and Mexico, playing daily with his daughter, Sam, and hitting as many golf balls as he can, Woods also has stayed busy overseeing the release of his EA Sports Tiger Woods PGA Tour ’09 game.

On Tuesday he was at the Gillette-EA Sports Champions of Gaming Finals in Orlando, preparing to take on the best of 350,000 entrants narrowed down to the winner of a three-man playoff.

“These guys are phenomenal,” Woods said, laughing when asked if he could compete with any of the three finalists on equal virtual-reality footing. “They practice probably more hours a day on my game than I do on my real game. It will be fun to see if I can keep up, which I know I probably won’t be able to.”

Woods will play the finalist on the virtual 16th , 17th and 18th holes at the T.P.C. Sawgrass, which, in reality, are among the most demanding finishing holes on the PGA Tour. He does not expect to win.

“If he does beat me, and he probably will, we’ll just go double or nothing on a real golf course,” Woods said.

When Woods will step back into competition on a real golf course at a real PGA Tour event will be learned within the next two months. Most signs point to some time during the Florida swing, which begins in early March. Whenever it is, he will be stepping into a new situation because he has never been away so long.

“I’ve never done anything like this before,” he said. “I really am looking forward to seeing how fast I can get into the competitive flow of a round. That’s the main thing — how long before things start to feel like they’re flowing in the round versus just hitting shot for shot? Getting into a rhythm, a flow, that’s what I’m looking forward to most.”

Super Bowl Now Most Watched In Game's History

http://www2.tbo.com/content/2009/feb/04/super-bowl-now-most-watched-history/news-breaking/

TAMPA - NBC has won the most recent weekly Nielsen Media ratings race with the most-watched Super Bowl ever, which also ranks as the most-watched telecast in U.S. history, according to the network.

NBC's release of the Nielsen report shows 151.6 million persons watched all or some (at least six minutes) of the telecast of Super Bowl XLIII from Tampa. An average of 98.7 million watched for the game's full duration. That average tops last year's Super Bowl XLII, previously the most-watched Super Bowl (97.5 million).

Preliminary ratings results as of Monday had the national viewing average at 95 million, but the final tally boosted the total viewing audience.

Most media outlets were reporting on Monday and Tuesday that Super Bowl XLIII fell short of last year, but full ratings results tell a different story.

NBC won the week in all key measures, averaging a 7.8 rating, 20 share in ages 18 to 49 and 21.6 million viewers overall for the week of Jan. 26 to Feb. 1, according to in-home viewing figures from Nielsen Media Research.

Super Bowl XLIII becomes the second most-watched television broadcast in TV history as far as "average viewership" during the program. The 1983 series finale of "M*A*S*H," which averaged 106 million viewers, remains the "most-watched television broadcast in history" based on average viewership.

NBC averaged 89.9 million viewers in prime time Sunday from 7 to 11 p.m., the highest viewership for any network on any prime time night in people meter history. In ages 18 to 49, NBC averaged a 34.0 rating Sunday night from 7 to 11 p.m., marking NBC's best performance for any prime time night in more than 11 years, since Sunday, Jan. 25, 1998, 35.5, when the network last broadcast a Super Bowl (Super Bowl XXXII).

Reporter Walt Belcher can be reached at (813) 259-7654.

No updates - no power

We are some of the 100000 who are without power here in Louisville. I am having to write this from my cell. Anyways, U of L been playing good. UK, what a joke. Good game against Ole Miss losers. At least UK isn't IU.

High School team loses 100-0

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/spt/stories/012409dnspoacademy.4194876.html

They have become the rage of network television. Today, they're scheduled to appear on two early morning national shows, and the gifts are piling up.

"Everybody who hears the story is sympathetic if not empathetic," said Andrew Morse, executive producer of Good Morning America Weekend, explaining the media interest. "Everybody has been on a losing side and felt what it must have been to look at the scoreboard as the other team's point total continued to mount."

It's made for a grueling schedule.

The girls were up late Thursday night to participate in a faux practice taped by ABC's World News. After the report that mentioned the final score, their traditional losing ways and their learning problems was broadcast Friday night, anchor Diane Sawyer, looking straight into the camera, offered a gentle cheer, "And go Bulldogs."

Early this morning, the girls will be back in the Dallas Academy gym for a segment on ABC's Good Morning America Weekend. As soon as ABC is finished with them, CBS' Saturday Early Show will step in to do its interviews.

Presumably, Sunday will be a day of rest. Then everybody will be back in the gym early Monday morning for a scheduled interview with Matt Lauer of NBC's Today show.

And there has been Mark Cuban's invitation to be his guests at a Mavericks game as well as a call from Nike about sponsoring a team trip to the Feb. 15 NBA All-Star Game in Phoenix. There may be some new uniforms thrown in.

The story unfolded on Jan. 13, when The Covenant School's team overwhelmed Dallas Academy, 100-0, keeping the pressure on until it reached 100 points. The game was played in an old North Dallas gym with few fans other than parents as witnesses. No media were present. But the score appeared in The Dallas Morning News the following day. It wasn't until a story about the game appeared in The News that the world took notice.

It was on Thursday, the day the story appeared, that Covenant, a North Dallas Christian School, issued an apology on its Web site, saying its team had achieved "victory without honor" and said it would forfeit the game.

When posted on dallas news.com, the story attracted 665,000 page views, the most since a controversy over who should be the Grapevine High School valedictorian attracted 853,000 in 2008. The season-high story for the Cowboys, perennial Web site favorites, was 300,000 page views in November when Tony Romo took a homeless man to the movies.

E-mails have flooded in from across the country and as far away as China commenting on the story. Most have questioned the motives of Covenant's coach for "running up" the score. But some have defended the coach for allowing his girls to play to their potential. None have blamed the Covenant players.

The attention has stunned Dallas Academy, which told its side of the story only after it was asked.

"It's really silly," said Jim Richardson, the school's headmaster, who has continually emphasized he has no hard feelings and pointed out that Covenant head of school Kyle Queal once spent time working for him as a substitute at Dallas Academy. "I remember once seeing a 1940s Gary Cooper movie in which people made a big deal about nothing. I think we're getting there fast."

Kay Yow dies

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5iv67GKYqLcJik3aGUc6gV0smh8BQD95TJAA01

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — North Carolina State's Kay Yow, the Hall of Fame women's basketball coach who won more than 700 games while earning fans with her decades-long fight against breast cancer, died on Saturday. She was 66.

Yow, first diagnosed with the disease in 1987, died Saturday morning at WakeMed Cary Hospital after being admitted there last week, university spokeswoman Annabelle Myers said.

"I think she understood that keeping going was inspirational to other people who were in the same boat she was in," Dr. Mark Graham, Yow's longtime oncologist, said Saturday.

Yow won more than 700 games in a career filled with milestones. She coached the U.S. Olympic team to a gold medal in 1988, won four Atlantic Coast Conference tournament championships, earned 20 NCAA tournament bids and reached the Final Four in 1998.

She also was inducted into the Naismith Hall of Fame in 2002, while the school dedicated "Kay Yow Court" in Reynolds Coliseum in 2007.

But for many fans, Yow was best defined by her unwavering resolve while fighting cancer, from raising awareness and money for research to staying with her team through the debilitating effects of the disease and chemotherapy treatments. In her final months, Yow was on hormonal therapy as the cancer spread to her liver and bone.

She never flinched or complained, relying on her faith as the disease progressed. She commonly noted there were other patients with "harder battles than I'm fighting" and said it was inspiring for her to stay with her team.

"Almost everybody is dealing with something," Yow said in a 2006 interview.

"We're all faced with a lot of tough issues that we're dealing with," she said. "We know we need to just come to the court and let that be our catharsis in a way. You can't bring it on the court with you, but we can all just think of basketball as an escape for a few hours."

Yow announced earlier this month that she would not return to the team this season after she missed four games because of what was described as an extremely low energy level.

The team visited Yow in the hospital before leaving Wednesday for a game at Miami. Associate head coach Stephanie Glance — who led the team in Yow's absences — met with the team Saturday morning to inform them Yow had died, Myers said.

Graham remembered how Yow always took time to talk to other patients when she came in for treatments in recent years.

"She could have tried to come into the clinic and be completely anonymous," he said. "She just wanted to be another patient. She was very open to sharing her experiences with others and being encouraging to others.

Yow's fight was never more public than when she took a 16-game leave to focus on her treatments during the 2006-07 season. After her return, her inspired Wolfpack won 12 of its final 15 games with wins against highly ranked rivals Duke and North Carolina in a run that attracted plenty of fans wearing pink — the color of breast-cancer awareness.

Her players also wore pink shoelaces for their coach.

"There were so many times I felt like giving up," forward Khadijah Whittington said after the Wolfpack's loss to Connecticut in the 2007 NCAA tournament's round of 16, "and then I see Coach Yow and she never gives up."

Yow always found ways to keep coaching even as she fought the disease. She spent most of games during that emotional 2007 run sitting on the bench while Glance stood to shout instructions at players or to help a weakened Yow to her feet.

"She's the Iron Woman, with the Lord's help," Glance said.

Yow was quick to embrace her role as an example for others battling the disease. She often found herself going about her daily activities in Raleigh only to have someone stop her and say they were praying for her or that she was an inspiration to them.

"When they say that, it really gives me a lift because it's at that time I know for sure that I'm not going through it for nothing," Yow said in 2007. "That means a lot to me. I have to go through it. I accept that, and I'm not panicked about it because the Lord is in control. But it just would be so saddening if I had to go through it and I couldn't help people.

Born March 14, 1942, Sandra Kay Yow originally took up coaching to secure a job teaching high school English at Allen Jay High School in High Point in the 1960s. Her boss, along with the boys' coach, agreed to help her plan practices and to sit on the bench with her during games. Midway through the season, Yow was on her own.

"Really, it was like love at first sight," she said in 2004.

She spent four years there followed by another year in her hometown at Gibsonville High, compiling a 92-27 record. She moved on to Elon, going 57-19 in four seasons before being hired at N.C. State in 1975.

Her original cancer diagnosis came the year before coaching the United States to the gold in the Seoul Olympics. She had a mastectomy as part of her treatment, then discovered a lump in November 2004 close to where cancer was first discovered. She had surgery that December and started on a regimen of radiation and daily hormone therapy. Still, the cancer came back again and again.

She missed two games of the 2004-05 season while attending an eight-day nutritional modification program, which called on her to eat an organic-food diet free of meat, dairy products and sugar. She stayed on the diet for eight months, losing 40 pounds by keeping junk food and Southern favorites like biscuits and gravy off her menu.

Still, she cheated on her organic diet during home recruiting visits because she didn't want to offend anyone by passing on a home-cooked meal.

Over the years, Yow never lost her folksy, easygoing manner and refused to dwell on her health issues, though they colored everything she did almost as much as basketball. Ultimately, her philosophy on both were the same.

"If you start to dwell on the wrong things, it'll take you down fast," Yow said in '07. "Every morning, I wake up and the first thing I think of is I'm thankful. I'm thankful for another day."

Lawsuit against Pac-Man Jones - send him to jail along with Vick

http://nationalpost.pa-sportsticker.com/default.aspx?s=nfl-news-display&nid=A28881261232566489A

A fight with his own bodyguard led to Adam 'Pacman' Jones' second suspension from the NFL.

Now the oft-troubled cornerback is being sued by his former attorney for failing to pay his legal fees.

Manny Arora filed a lawsuit against Jones in Fulton State Court, claiming the controversial cornerback owes him "in excess of $10,000" from 18 cases in which he represented either family or friends of Jones.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported the lawsuit on Wednesday. The suit, which was filed on December 30, lists several defendants assisted by Arora on charges ranging from speeding, kidnapping and murder.

Arora could not be reached for comment.

Jones currently is not on an NFL roster after a brief but ill-fated tenure with the Dallas Cowboys.

Dallas announced the release of Jones on January 7, ending a disastrous stint that was marred by a suspension, poor play and a neck injury.

In the wake of his release, an ESPN.com report came to light that three men alleged that Jones arranged a shooting outside an Atlanta-area strip club June 2007 - two months after he had already been suspended by NFL commissioner Roger Goodell.

Jones, who was acquired by the Cowboys from the Titans in the offseason, was suspended for the entire 2007 season by Goodell for repeated run-ins with the law.

In February 2007, Jones was involved in a melee at a Las Vegas strip club that ended in the shooting of three people and left one man paralyzed.